Fostering learner autonomy and critical reflection through digital video-journals in a university foreign language course

Many studies have documented the benefits of incorporating reflective journals into foreign language education at university level, though the pedagogic tendency has been to utilise these valuable learning resources to enhance students’ written language skills. This study focuses on how the production of a digital reflective journal in video format can assist in the improvement of oral language abilities in tertiary students of Spanish as a foreign language. With spoken language as the driving vehicle for this assessment task, the course coordinator and educator in charge aimed to promote the development of learner autonomy and self-reflection. In addition, to foster students’ agency in this process, the task incorporated the use of modern digital technologies, which are part of the repertoire of communication channels used by today’s university language learners. Findings suggest that completing this self-reflection assessment task afforded creative teaching and learning experiences, and generated opportunities for learners to improve critical thinking skills, written language proficiency and oral communication. It also heightened their motivation to engage with language-related cultural knowledge, and minimised feelings of anxiety towards communicating verbally in a foreign language.     

论道德语言在道德思维中的地位和作用

道德语言是道德思维的主要工具,其在道德思维中具有重要作用。一是对道德思维主体、道德思维对象、道德思维过程的作用：对主体而言,它提供了道德思维的动力、意义和标准;对对象而言,具有概括与抽象作用;对过程而言,它使概念得以形成,使判断和推理成为可能,并对道德思维的结果进行表述。二是对个体道德思维形成的作用：记忆贮存道德信息,形成特定心理结构,进行导向和定向。三是在道德劝服、道德态度改变和道德价值澄清中也具有重要作用。     

中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征

采用启动效应的实验范式,基于不同加工水平的词汇判断任务,通过变化启动刺激与目标刺激的4个实验,考察了中国大学生第二语言知识的心理表征特征。被试为第二军医大学的学生38名。结果发现:在基于语义的范畴判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验一);当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,也得到了显著的启动效应(实验二);但在基于语音的词汇判断任务中,当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语义联想关系,没有得到启动效应(实验三);而当启动刺激(英)和目标刺激(英)之间存在语音相同或相近关系,得到了显著的启动效应(实验四)。这一结果表明,对于中国大学生程度的中英双语者来说,其第二语言(英语)知识的心理表征特征为:①语义联想特征和语音联想特征,符合激活扩散模型;②第二语言知识的心理表征,不仅在概念语义层有着联系,而且在词汇表征层也有相互的联系;其词汇表征层和语义概念表征层是分层表征的。     

试论民族心理与商标语言创意

本文通过民族共有的感情、习惯、价值观念、审美情趣、思维方式等方面的研究,试图从语言文学的角度搜索民族心理与商标语言创意的内在联系和商标文学撰写的客观规律,从而产生“实效”（既引发购买行为）的途径。     

The Logic and Meaning of Plurals. Part I

Contemporary accounts of logic and language cannot give proper treatments of plural constructions of natural languages. They assume that plural constructions are redundant devices used to abbreviate singular constructions. This paper and its sequel, “The logic and meaning of plurals, II”, aim to develop an account of logic and language that acknowledges limitations of singular constructions and recognizes plural constructions as their peers. To do so, the papers present natural accounts of the logic and meaning of plural constructions that result from the view that plural constructions are, by and large, devices for talking about many things (as such). The account of logic presented in the papers surpasses contemporary Fregean accounts in its scope. This extension of the scope of logic results from extending the range of languages that logic can directly relate to. Underlying the view of language that makes room for this is a perspective on reality that locates in the world what plural constructions can relate to. The papers suggest that reflections on plural constructions point to a broader framework for understanding logic, language, and reality that can replace the contemporary Fregean framework as this has replaced its Aristotelian ancestor.     

Scientists in the Swamp: Narrowing the Language–Practice Gap in Community Psychology

As a confluence of unique values and activities, the collective practice of community psychology is difficult to characterize in a simple way. Increasingly, however, professional contexts are laden with pressure to define any practice—from library work to medical interventions—in the orderly, compact language of traditional science. This trend has historically been resisted in the field by those sensing a fundamental lack of fit between the fluid, emergent aspects of community psychological practice and the fixed, precise language of classic science. In response to this “language–practice gap,” some have attempted to adapt the traditional language of science to better fit the field's practice, while others have explored alternative languages of practice seemingly more indigenous to the messy “swamp” of actual communities. While the former effort leaves some theoretical contradictions intact, the latter tends to discount scientific identity entirely. This paper proposes a potential step forward by resituating questions of disciplinary language and identity within a current philosophical discourse where the nature of social science itself remains sharply contested. This suggests shifting attention away from “should we be a science?” to “what kind of science might we be after all?”; in turn, alternative languages may be re‐cast as legitimate contributors to a kind of science more authentic to human communities—even a viable “science in the swamp.” One such language–philosophical hermeneutics—is presented as a particularly valuable supplement to traditional science. Illustrations highlight ways that hermeneutics may advance the formal language of the field towards a closer fit of what actually happens in practice, while preserving and even bolstering the empirical rigor and scientific identity of the field.     

On the experiential link between spatial and temporal language

How do we understand time and other entities we can neither touch nor see? One possibility is that we tap into our concrete, experiential knowledge, including our understanding of physical space and motion, to make sense of abstract domains such as time. To examine how pervasive an aspect of cognition this is, we investigated whether thought about a nonliteral type of motion called fictive motion (FM; as in The road runs along the coast) can influence thought about time. Our results suggest that FM uses the same structures evoked in understanding literal motion, and that these literal aspects of FM influence temporal reasoning.     

“SLANG”—Sensitive Language and the New Genetics—an Exploratory Study

SLANG—Sensitive Language and the New Genetics—is a concept that arose out of informal discussions between a number of interested parties, both consumers and professionals, who were becoming increasingly uneasy with some of the language commonly used in medical genetics. Some language choices were felt by the authors to be inappropriate for a variety of reasons. Poor language choice may impede an individual's understanding of a genetic condition or important medical information and the chosen words themselves may simply be perceived as discriminatory and even offensive. SLANG is an important concept to explore partly because literature in this area confirms that language choices in medical settings can be of great significance to both patients and families. Studies have shown how language choices impact on professional practice by, as one example, changing the intended meaning of medical information and affecting individual perception of risk and choice which, in turn, may affect individual or familial well-being. In addition language choice has the power to affect how individuals perceive themselves and are viewed by others. This paper presents the results from our pilot study and discusses the implications for health professionals with particular reference to medical genetics settings.     

Early Language Impairment and Young Adult Delinquent and Aggressive Behavior

Clinic and forensic studies have reported high rates of language impairments in conduct disordered and incarcerated youth. In community samples followed to early adolescence, speech and language impairments have been linked to attention deficits and internalizing problems, rather than conduct problems, delinquency, or aggression. This study examines the young adult antisocial outcomes of speech or language impaired children. Language impaired boys had higher levels of parent-rated delinquency symptoms by age 19 than boys without language impairment, controlled for verbal IQ and for demographic and family variables. Language impaired boys did not differ from controls in self-reported delinquency or aggression symptoms on a standardized checklist; however, language impaired boys reported higher rates of arrests and convictions than controls. Language impairment was not related to aggression or delinquency in girls. We examine alternate models of the interrelationships between language, academics, and behavior, at ages 5, 12, and 19.